Espresso Shots [12-13-05]
Prayer? Meditation? Whatever.
I was at work today and asked a co-worker if she would be going out of town for Christmas or staying home. She proceeded to tell me the story about her children. It was a long and painful story to hear as she recounted the multiple levels of dysfunction that constituted her "family."
Toward the end, she stated that her daughter, involved in a number of terrible situations really needed prayer. She then asked me to pray for her, or if I don't pray, to meditate. I quickly said, I do pray and will for her daughter, to which she replied that she knew I did and then she walked away.
I thought about that and recounted it several times in my head as I considered the implications involved. This is a woman in her mid sixties completely at peace with pluralism. Though she, herself, believed in prayer, she was totally comfortable with me simply meditating for her daughter if that's what I believed in instead. The more I thought about it, the more the question kept coming back, "why?" In what way, exactly, would simple meditation do anything at all for her daughter?
The fact is, if there is no real, live, personal, omnipotent and benevolent God, there is no use in either meditating or praying. If it doesn't matter which, so long as I do something, then the reality is, it doesn't matter if I do anything, because that is exactly the end result for those who embrace pluralism. Whatever you do, do something...and since it doesn't matter what you do, there can be no real belief that anything will really help.
Islam Expanding
I read this morning at Little Green Footballs that the Saudi prince whose money was refused by former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani following the 9/11 attacks has made a similar offer to two very prominent American universities: Georgetown and Harvard universities.
The universities have reportedly accepted $40 million dollars which will be used to expand their Islamic studies program. That's just great since many of the best and brightest Islamic extremist received their education in Western universities before going back and perfecting their terrorism skills. Now, we can do train them even more efficiently and expand Islam on American soil at the same time. Bonus.
Mega-Madness
I haven't said much about the mass closings of the mega-churches on Christmas morning because so many others have done such a fine job lambasting their ill-advised decision. But in the end, I can't resist.
There have been some really good points brought out in the blogosphere about why that is such a bad idea. My concerns are primarily two-fold. First and foremost, worship of Christ as savior is the heart of what Christmas is about. For churches to neglect that opportunity is to deny everything for which they stand. If not Christmas morning, then exactly when is worship more appropriate?
My second problem is that it adds fuel to the anti-Christmas population. This year, unlike any other year that I can remember, attacks have been made against the Christmas holiday. Some in the outspoken minority are doing their best to make sure that the meaning of Christmas is eliminated in order to marginalize it to such a degree that they can eliminate "Christmas" completely.
Winter breaks and holidays are fine, but don't let them mean anything of significance. Family holidays are great, too. If Christmas can become known as a family holiday; a day that should be spent resting, relaxing, and enjoying family time, then the anti-Christmas minority has won. Mega-churches that have cancelled Christmas celebrations so that time can be spent with families have foolishly advanced that agenda, without even having a clue.
I was at work today and asked a co-worker if she would be going out of town for Christmas or staying home. She proceeded to tell me the story about her children. It was a long and painful story to hear as she recounted the multiple levels of dysfunction that constituted her "family."
Toward the end, she stated that her daughter, involved in a number of terrible situations really needed prayer. She then asked me to pray for her, or if I don't pray, to meditate. I quickly said, I do pray and will for her daughter, to which she replied that she knew I did and then she walked away.
I thought about that and recounted it several times in my head as I considered the implications involved. This is a woman in her mid sixties completely at peace with pluralism. Though she, herself, believed in prayer, she was totally comfortable with me simply meditating for her daughter if that's what I believed in instead. The more I thought about it, the more the question kept coming back, "why?" In what way, exactly, would simple meditation do anything at all for her daughter?
The fact is, if there is no real, live, personal, omnipotent and benevolent God, there is no use in either meditating or praying. If it doesn't matter which, so long as I do something, then the reality is, it doesn't matter if I do anything, because that is exactly the end result for those who embrace pluralism. Whatever you do, do something...and since it doesn't matter what you do, there can be no real belief that anything will really help.
Islam Expanding
I read this morning at Little Green Footballs that the Saudi prince whose money was refused by former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani following the 9/11 attacks has made a similar offer to two very prominent American universities: Georgetown and Harvard universities.
The universities have reportedly accepted $40 million dollars which will be used to expand their Islamic studies program. That's just great since many of the best and brightest Islamic extremist received their education in Western universities before going back and perfecting their terrorism skills. Now, we can do train them even more efficiently and expand Islam on American soil at the same time. Bonus.
Mega-Madness
I haven't said much about the mass closings of the mega-churches on Christmas morning because so many others have done such a fine job lambasting their ill-advised decision. But in the end, I can't resist.
There have been some really good points brought out in the blogosphere about why that is such a bad idea. My concerns are primarily two-fold. First and foremost, worship of Christ as savior is the heart of what Christmas is about. For churches to neglect that opportunity is to deny everything for which they stand. If not Christmas morning, then exactly when is worship more appropriate?
My second problem is that it adds fuel to the anti-Christmas population. This year, unlike any other year that I can remember, attacks have been made against the Christmas holiday. Some in the outspoken minority are doing their best to make sure that the meaning of Christmas is eliminated in order to marginalize it to such a degree that they can eliminate "Christmas" completely.
Winter breaks and holidays are fine, but don't let them mean anything of significance. Family holidays are great, too. If Christmas can become known as a family holiday; a day that should be spent resting, relaxing, and enjoying family time, then the anti-Christmas minority has won. Mega-churches that have cancelled Christmas celebrations so that time can be spent with families have foolishly advanced that agenda, without even having a clue.
Labels: David C. Price
posted by DAVID C. PRICE at 12/13/2005 02:10:00 PM
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4 Comments:
Amen to that! I wrote a letter to the editor regarding a response to a column in defense of the closing of the mega-churches and how the "newer changes" to the mega-churches to be more inclusive of everyone, AKA "Seeker Sensitive". Don't know if you're interested, but I thought I'd post my response here.
==============================
In response to the letter sent by Greg McRay, disparaging the commentary by Kevin McCullough, maybe he ought to investigate for himself why people are no longer coming to churches. I know hundreds of people who do not go to a typical church but rather who go to smaller home churches or are part of an online fellowship and their reasons are pretty much all the same.
There is no Truth anymore in the mainstream and mega churches. Nobody ever talks about the big, "bad words like the "S" word - Sin or the need for repentance. It is all about how to water down the message of the Bible and the Gospel in order to make it more palatable for the masses. "We daren't tell anyone that they're sinners. We want them to feel good." That is why there is almost never any genuine remorse or change within those who go to the mega-churches. It's all smiley, smiley, feel good sermons. A lot of the mainstream churches out there aren't even using the Bible anymore in their sermons and those sermons are more about bringing the people up to God's level instead of the Truth that God came down to earth to be human, to be God in the flesh and to give Himself, His innocent, sin-free life, to die in our stead and take our sins upon Him, all sins past, present and future, so that we would not live in separation from Him or go to Hell at the end of our lives.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, perhaps the greatest preacher ever and who never hurt for a standing room only crowd of congregants, preached the brimstone, hellfire and damnation sermons and yet the people kept coming because he wasn't afraid to tell someone that their soul was in danger of damnation without repenting of their sins. They didn't get their ears tickled or hear a treacly, watered down version of the Gospel. They heard what could happen to them if they didn't genuinely repent of their sins and accept Jesus as their one and only Savior. They heard the horrors of what awaited them after death without having Jesus as their Savior and leaning on the blessed assurance that with Jesus atoning blood, they would be saved from eternal damnation.
Newsflash, no matter what pastors like Copeland, Hinn, Crouch, Haggin or the other same sort of ilk say, we are not gods. Just because we were made in the image of God, it does not mean that we are a god too. I have heard countless speeches, quotes and talks from these so called "mighty men of God" and they are all about how if you only have enough "faith" you can be healed, get rich, have your best life ever or that we can even command God by our words and God wants us healthy and wealthy. If Christians are not healthy and wealthy it is because of our lack of faith and/or knowledge. It simply is not true. We do not command God to do anything. That would be like saying that God is nothing more than a puppet on a string for us to control.
Just read the quotes below, the first two being mystic and New Age, the rest being quotes from these preachers who are fleecing the flock, and see how they all sound alike:
"It is far more important that men should strive to become Christs than that they should believe that Jesus was Christ." (MYSTIC MASONRY, by J. D. Buck, p. 62)
"You are the christ: The only begotten son of your own God-self." (New ager, M.S. Princess, Step By Step We Climb, p.127)
"Dogs beget dogs, and cats beget cats, and God begets gods. You are all little gods." (Kenneth Copeland, speaking on Trinity Broadcasting Network's Praise the Lord show)
"We are 'little gods' and even part of God with all the power of God; and we are 'little messiahs,' everything that Jesus ever was." (Hinn, The Berean Call, 1992 Media Spotlight Special Report, Feb 94)
In The Force of Love, another sermon tape, Kenneth Copeland states, "You don't have a god in you, you are one."
Kenneth Hagin in Word of Faith says, "You are as much the incarnation of God as Jesus Christ was. Every man who has been born again is an incarnation and Christianity is a miracle. The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth ." (December 1980, p. 14).
Benny Hinn, "Our Position In Christ", tape # AO31190-1, states, "Are you ready for some real revelation knowledge....you are god."
Frederick K.C. Price says, "God can't do anything in this earth realm except what we, the body of Christ, allow Him to do." ("Ever Increasing Faith" program on TBN [1 May 1992], audiotape #PR11.) Cf. chapter 6, 85.
"Pray to yourself, because I'm in your self and you're in Myself. We are one Spirit, saith the Lord." (Kenneth Copeland, "Believer's Voice of Victory", Feb. 1987, p.9)
Really? Pray to yourself? Well, according to Copeland, you're a little god so why do you need to pray to the God of Heaven?
The modern church has turned into an apostate church. Pleasing the people instead of pleasing God. There are so many new age influences that have crept into the church, such as Yoga, chanting, mantras, etc. that it is less of a place to worship God and understand the depth of what we owe God because we are sinners and yet God loved us so much that He created a way for us to be forgiven of those sins through the atoning blood of Jesus on the cross than it is a place of making it a place where everyone than it is a place where everyone can go to be "happy" and have their ears tickled with what sounds nice to them instead of what is actually Truth.
God never promised us that we would have a trouble-free, healthy, wealthy life if we followed Him, He only promised us that in the end it would be worth it. Paul was afflicted in his life to the point where he pleaded with God three times to heal him and take away his affliction and God's response was "My grace is sufficient for you". Jesus said that His true followers would be persecuted, that we would be hated.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon said of ear tickling and being "seeker" sensitive:
"Oh, Brethren, it is sickening work to think of your cushioned seats, your chants, your anthems, your choirs, your organs, your gowns, and your bands, and I know not what besides, all made to be instruments of religious luxury, if not of pious dissipation, while ye need far more to be stirred up and incited to holy ardor for the propagation of the truth as it is in Jesus."
"If your religion does not make you holy, it will damn you. It is simply painted pageantry to go to hell in."
"We are certain that there is forgiveness, because there is a Gospel, and the very essence of the Gospel lies in the proclamation of the pardon of sin."
"Evangelical repentance is repentance of sin as sin: not of this sin nor of that, but of the whole mass. We repent of the sin of our nature as well as the sin of our practice. We bemoan sin within us and without us. We repent of sin itself as being an insult to God. Anything short of this is a mere surface repentance, and not a repentance which reaches to the bottom of the mischief. Repentance of the evil act, and not of the evil heart, is like men pumping water out of a leaky vessel, but forgetting to stop the leak. Some would dam up the stream, but leave the fountain still flowing; they would remove the eruption from the skin, but leave the disease in the flesh."
"A chasm is opening between the men who believe their Bibles and the men who are prepared for an advance upon Scripture. Inspiration and speculation cannot long abide in peace. Compromise there can be none. We cannot hold the inspiration of the Word, and yet reject it; we cannot believe in the atonement and deny it; we cannot hold the doctrine of the fall and yet talk of the evolution of spiritual life from human nature; we cannot recognize the punishment of the impenitent and yet indulge the "larger hope." One way or the other we must go. Decision is the virtue of the hour ."
When did Christmas Sunday become just another HOLIday instead of a HOLY day in these seeker sensitive mainstream and mega churches? Since they started listening to the world instead of the Word.
Thanks for posting, Nic. You made some really good points.
I should hasten to add that it is not all mega-churches that fall into this category. Though I'm no fan of the mega-church movement, per se, there are some really fine, Bible-teaching, "anti-ear-tickling" churches that are really large and, by their size, fall into the mega-church category. However, like Spurgeon's, they are big because they teach the Truth and people are drawn in.
Absolutely agreed on that point that not all mega-churches fall into this category. However it seems to be the seeker-sensitive, ear ticklers that are getting the publicity and the airtime on the networks/cable stations. It's like so many people are so afraid of offending others that they very rarely put anything on that is considered controversial anymore.
I doubt Spurgeon, if he were alive today, would be offered a network spot, even though he would have one of the largest churches in the country, simply because he wasn't afraid to talk to people about the consequences of rejecting Jesus as their savior and talking about those consequences could be considered "offensive" and controversial.
Agreed. Thanks for your comments, Nic.
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